“He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord.”

In 2 Kings 4:8-37, we find an incredible story about the Prophet Elisha and a woman from the town of Shunem. While I will summarize the story, I encourage you to take some time to read it for yourself. The woman was wealthy. She and her husband were unable to have children; so, they decided to offer their extra bedroom to Elisha for his use whenever he traveled through the area. Upon receiving her kindness, Elisha inquired if there was any way he could bless the woman. When he found out she wanted to have children, Elisha blessed her and prophesied over her that she would indeed have a son. She stood in the doorway and received his blessing. It came about just as Elisha had prophesied. The story takes a jump in time and we fast forward to when the boy was several years old. The boy’s head began to hurt. He later died in his mother’s lap. The woman placed her dead son on the prophet’s bed, shut the door, and went to find the prophet Elisha. Upon finding Elisha, she wept and explained all that had happened. Elisha returned home with the woman. He went into the room where they boy lay dead and shut the door behind him. He was alone with the boy. Elisha prayed over the boy – prayed in several various ways – until life returned to the boy and he sneezed seven times. Elisha then called to the woman. When she came in through the door, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!”  

When I read this passage, I noticed something remarkably interesting. The writer took great care in the story to include four distinct references about a “door.” Why was this little detail about a seemingly insignificant door included, when other mundane details were left out of the story?  Let us take a closer look at these four instances:

1. “Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, ‘next year at this time you will surely have a son.’” – V 15-16
2. “She carried her son up and laid him on the prophet’s bed, and then shut the door and left him there.” – V 21
3. “He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord.” – V 33
4. “and when she came in through the door, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” – V 36

God never puts anything insignificant in His Word. This seemingly irrelevant reference to a door carries with it a much larger and more significant importance to this story, and to our story, than initially recognized.  

The first door:  She, the woman from Shumen, stood in an open doorway. This woman opened her home in hospitality to serve God by housing his prophet. She opened the door. Are you willing to open the door to God? Are there rooms in your life that lay empty and bare? The empty room was a place of sorrow and heartache for the woman because it represented lost dreams. It takes faith to open the door and let the unknown possibilities come into your emptiness. It takes vulnerability to say, “What was my place of sorrow will now be God’s dwelling place.” It takes surrender to release your hope entirely into God’s service. What would happen if you opened the doors of the hidden rooms of your heart and life and gave them in service to Christ? I wonder how He might be willing and waiting to bless you? In the woman’s willingness to open the door to her home, she received a blessing far greater than she could have ever hoped. This first door represents the blessing God wants to give us when we open our hearts and our lives to His service.

The second door:  When the boy had died, the woman placed the boy on the bed she reserved for the prophet and then left the room, shutting the door behind her. Her heart’s desire had died. She returned her hope, her joy, into the room that once represented her sorrow. She left her pain in the room and shut the door. When faced with a problem bigger than you can handle, I wonder if you have ever tried to hide it away in a safe place where no one can disturb it. Have you, like the woman in the story, ever put your hurts and your pains in a room and shut the door on them, thinking that because no one else will see them, you will be safe? During a crisis, we tend to take safety, or at least the illusion of safety, over being vulnerable. This second door represents the areas of our life where we refuse to let anyone in. We shut the door not only on our problems, but also to allowing other people to help us through the problems.

The third door:  Elisha arrived, went into the room alone, and shut the door behind him. Did you notice that Elisha went in alone? The Shunamite woman was shut off from the room that contained her biggest blessing, her son. This must have been excruciating for her. She was shut out. The door was closed. She would have to wait on the outside not knowing what Elisha was doing inside the room. Have you ever been shut out like this? Left completely powerless to do anything? Have you ever been left on the outside of a closed door, not able to know what God was doing on the inside? Sometimes God needs to shut you out by closing the door on you, not to hurt you, nor to ignore what you are going through. He does this so He can get alone with your problem. This third door represents the times in our life when God shuts us out so that He can go in and work. What is your problem that God needs to get alone with? What relationship has died, that God wants to bring back to life? What addiction has taken over your life, that God wants to set you free from? What financial shortcoming has left you bankrupt, that God wants to provide for? Whatever your problem may be, if God has shut the door on you and gone into that room alone, then get ready, because God is working! He is working behind closed doors. The true test for us is whether we will be able to surrender whatever is behind that door completely into God’s care; or will we beat upon the door?

The fourth door:  After God healed the boy, Elisha called the woman back into the room. She entered through the doorway – yes, the door that had been shut was now wide open to her – her son was alive! Shut doors will not always remain shut. If you allow God to get alone with your problem, He will not only solve the problem, but He will also bless you unexpectantly through them. The fourth door represents the unexpectant blessings we receive when we surrender our problems to God’s care.

We tend to open and then shut a door. The woman opened the door to God in service and received a blessing; however, when God’s blessing turned into heartbreak, the woman shut the door. But God does not work like we work. He showed up and worked in the exact opposite sequence. God started by walking in and shutting the door and ended with the door wide open. God will always end with the door wide open.